Orwell's 1984 Has Arrived

Are We Approaching the Real-Life World of Orwell's 1984?

Joseph E. Ciotti

George Orwell wrote his prophetic masterpiece 1984 barely three years after Europe was liberated from the oppressive grip of Nazi socialism.  Victory notwithstanding, Orwell remained preoccupied with the ease and speed with which a nation's freedom could be lost.  Freedom's strength was also liberty's fragility — a free people could choose to relinquish freedom.  This poignant lesson was Orwell's wake-up call that the great draconian nightmare hadn't ended — it was merely postponed.

This existential threat must have terrified Orwell so deeply that he envisioned the resurgence of a tyrannical society a mere 36 years after the blitzkrieg of World War II.  Even with today's 2020 hindsight, one wonders how he could have so accurately predicted the impending demise of civilization.  His only miscalculation was the appointed year.  Nineteen eighty-four came and went without fanfare despite the chilling effects of a "cold war," a term Orwell coined to describe his "peace that is no peace."  His timing may well have proven accurate were it not for one unknown unknown in Orwell's visionary acumen: Ronald Reagan.

Now, 36 years after 1984's forecast, 2020 offers itself as an eerie time portal — a way back to the future of Orwell's prophetic world of freedom lost.

Much like today, Orwell's world of 1984 was divided into three warring superstates: Oceania, which included Great Britain and the Americas; Eurasia, controlled by Russia; and Eastasia, dominated by China.  Oceania, a totalitarian regime founded from an anti-capitalist revolution, was ruled by the Party under Big Brother's leadership and enforced by the Thought Police (Thinkpol), which served as judge and jury for offenses against Party doctrine. Nonconformists were broken until they finally surrendered under their own free will.  As Orwell wrote: "We do not destroy the heretic ... we capture his inner mind, we reshape him."  Today, this psychological oppression and censorship is carried out by "cancel culture" agitators and platforms like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, which suppress all opposing viewpoints — mostly recently a New York Post story on the Bidens.

A first step in the loss of freedom is the voluntary loss of privacy.  In 1984, the populace of Oceania is constantly monitored by the Party via omnipresent telescreens.  Today's smartphones are the counterparts of these invasive telescreens, tracking every user's location, consumer preferences, and personal habits.

Orwell's protagonist, Winston Smith, represents humanity's last hope of regaining this lost freedom.  Smith works as a clerk in the Ministry of Truth, where he forges historical documents to reconcile the Party's ever changing platform — obliterating all contradictory government policies and blundered predictions in a contraption called a memory hole.  Today, technology allows mainstream media to seamlessly rewrite stories or instantaneously alter TV chyrons, creating an endless stream of fake news.

Today, governments often rely on fear to control the population.  In his techno-thriller State of Fear, Michael Crichton elaborates on the overwhelming role fear can play in government control.  "Never let a crisis go to waste" is a common paraphrase of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.  Most crises are difficult to elevate to doomsday pitch.  Global warming, for instance, lacks the immediacy and personal impact to promote widespread  fear-mongering.  Yet, on occasion, a crisis may arise that strikes fear even in the fearless.  COVID-19 is a case in point.  Government lockdowns that would normally be impossible are now mostly accepted.

Another powerful tool for achieving group control is hatred.  Like fear, hatred's consuming obsession can overwhelm large groups of people into addictive frenzy.  In 1984, the citizens of Oceania are subjected to daily "Two Minute Hate" sessions and a weeklong Hate Holiday.  This practice has been carried to extremes in recent years with the nearly 24-7 "Trump" hate forums that are broadcast by even once respected news outlets.

Newspeak is Oceania's official language, a linguistic tool that fosters the Party's ideologies of English Socialism.  Its aim is to limit thought.  "Orthodoxy," Orwell wrote, "means not thinking — not needing to think."  Today we call this groupthink, something that ironically abounds on college campuses.  Individualism in Oceania is equated with eccentricity and given the derogatory Newspeak term ownlife.

More...